Asks CM to order inquiry into later order of gunny bags
Bathinda, May 07, 2019: Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to prove his charge that gunny bags meant for Punjab had been diverted to Haryana by putting letters he had written on this issue to the centre in public domain.
Addressing well attended public meetings at Sardarpura, Virk Khurd and several other villages in Bathinda Rural assembly segment, Mrs Badal said surely if Capt Amarinder knew about the gravity of the problem he must have written to the centre to ensure it was addressed. “All such communication should be put in public domain to allow people to judge how well the State had taken up the issue of timely supply of gunny bags with the centre”.
The Bathinda mp said instead of trying to deflect attention from its failures, the Congress government should tell the people on which dates it had placed orders for the gunny bags. “As per my information the Congress government was placing orders for gunny bags in January while this exercise used to occur in November during SAD- BJP tenure”. She said surely Raja Sahab could not blame the centre for delay in supply of gunny bags if his government did not place timely orders.
Asking the chief minister not to create smoke screens, Mrs Badal said “please get your act together even now. Liaison properly with the centre and ensure smooth supply of gunny bags to Mandis in Punjab. Your lackadaisical attitude has already resulted in severe hardship to farmers. Please don’t increase this by going into blame games. Please see the welfare of the farmers and don’t politicise this issue”, Mrs. Badal added.
The union minister also requested the chief minister that instead of blaming the centre he should order an inquiry into the late order of gunny bags. “Similarly action should be taken against officials who failed to calculate the exact amount of gunny bags needed by the State. The State also failed to ask for an increase in its gunny bag allocation”, Mrs Badal added.
Mrs. Badal said never before had farmers suffered in Mandis as had happened now. “First wheat was not procured for more than one week on the pretext of extra moisture. Then procurement was stoped due to glut in market due to heavy arrivals. Now all Mandis have become choked because wheat is not being lifted due to scarcity of gunny bags”, Mrs. Badal added.